
Deck of the Day: Caitlyn Teemo











- Origins
Many of you should be familiar with the Freljord variation of the Teemo Puffcaps – it is a fun niche archetype that has a very long history.
The goal of that deck is to stall the match while shuffling as many Poison Puffcaps into the opponent’s deck and then force them to draw shrooms until they are dead.
The Bandle variation of the Puffcaps archetype is much more tempo-oriented, and it has many different sources of Traps – as compared to Freljord Piltover deck that goes all-in on Teemo and the Puffcap Peddler. Here, we are not solely relying on Puffcaps for our damage – our units also help to put pressure on the opponent.
- Gameplan
As with any Puffcaps deck, the goal is to shuffle our Traps into the opponent’s deck to eventually win through direct Nexus damage.
For stalling, we are relying on Pranks and combat tricks provided by Bandle City, namely Purpleberry Shake and Stress Defense.
The units we have are either aggressive attackers (Puffcap Pup, Lecturing Yordle, Teemo, Caitlyn) or chump blockers creating value (Otterpus, Conchologist, Aloof Travelers). This mix of tempo-efficient attackers and stalling blockers actually works pretty well and allows us to be flexible in our planning.
The Flashbomb Traps are great against small units and they go perfectly with Poison Darts. This way, we can also have an alternate controlling gameplan against fast decks which won’t be bothered by the Puffcaps most of the time. Keep in mind that in those matchups, Caitlyn is a higher priority than Teemo.
The Puffcaps are punishing for slower decks, and the Pranks are another great tool against those greedier decks relying on spells.
We are lacking in matchups where our opponents can present big units and a solid board presence. Where Freljord had access to Frostbites, Bandle City only has Stress Defense – it is all we have that can be somewhat comparable.
Among the popular decks on the ladder, Sivir and Discard could be a very tall order for Caitlyn Teemo, but against most of the other meta opponents, we do actually have a good shot.
- Verdict
I consider this deck to be a ‘for fun’ option, and I never intended to climb with it. I believe it can do well in the lower ranks though – up until the Platinum or Diamond where Sivir and Sion are currently very popular.
The best part about the deck is that it is difficult to get bored playing it, and the changing roles we will adopt depending on matchups feel rewarding when we make it work.
Overall, I believe the Frejlord archetype serves a more competitive purpose, and it is a viable counter deck. In the case of this Bandle and Piltover pairing, the flexibility might actually not be so good for the deck because it ends up lacking the firepower the best archetypes possess.
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